The FIA’s new race director, Niels Wittich , has followed the international sporting code to the letter by requiring drivers not to wear jewelry or non-flame-retardant underwear while inside the car.
The debate raged over several race weekends but came to a head at this Miami GP, where for example the removal of wedding rings was a particular point of contention.
The drivers were also formally informed, in Wittich’s notes to the teams, that watches are also prohibited.
Lewis Hamilton appeared to challenge the FIA when he arrived at the circuit on Friday with three watches and multiple pieces of jewellery.
He was given a two-race waiver to remove items he said he couldn’t easily remove, such as his nose piercing, and has until the Monaco GP to do so.
The jewelery debate came back into focus this Saturday when Esteban Ocon suffered a major accident in FP3, hitting the same concrete wall that Carlos Sainz Jr. finished against in FP2.
Ocon revealed that the issue of the TecPro barrier-free wall had been discussed at the drivers’ meeting on Friday night, but no changes were made overnight.
The apparent illogicality between requiring the jewels to be removed for safety reasons and not modifying that area of the track to install Tecpro barriers did not go unnoticed by the drivers.
Las joyas de Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes-AMG
“This whole security thing…I don’t know,” Hamilton began when asked about the barriers. “When they told me about jewelry, they said safety is everything. And I said, ‘Well, what’s happened in the last 16 years? I’ve been in jewelry for 16 years. So safety wasn’t an issue until now? ?”.
“When we get to these new tracks they do the best job. I think they’ve done a great job on all the new circuits in terms of safety, you can’t predict every corner, it’s hard to know where we’re going to need Tecpro, but safety on this track is excellent”.
“So I think of course after this weekend’s experience we can know that that’s an area where we can improve. But that’s part of the lessons that we learn.”
Asked by Motorsport.com if he would remove his nose piercing at Monaco after his two-race waiver, Hamilton answered with a clear “no”.
Then he added, “I have a waiver here, and I’ll get a waiver for the rest of the year. Others are allowed wedding rings.”
And when pressed whether the debate would continue in Monaco, he said: “Sure. Next time I’ll wear four watches.”
Earlier, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff had suggested that the jewelery ban was the subject of a private discussion between Hamilton and FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem .
“I think what was needed was a dialogue between Lewis and Mohammed,” he said. “It is clear that the rules are there to protect the drivers, on the other hand we need to maintain the possibility of diversity and freedom of expression.”
“And we know this is important to Lewis, so yesterday without going into detail about where he has a piercing, I’m sure they’ll come to a good resolution.”
